What about the output impedance of Line Out? Isn't it higher than the amp output?

The specs do not mention anything about the output impedance of the line out but with a higher signal to noise ratio and a high 1.5 volt RMS I don't think driving them is going to be an issue (iems that is), the headphone out though has the amp behind it's back so it'll be easier for it to do so. The best thing to do is to try it and see. I know that you'll get a higher sound amplitude on the HO. I plugged my momentum on the LO and controlled the volume and the amp was not necessary. I don't like using the DX50 amp because it does not seem to sound as good as my pico amp.

The specs do not mention anything about the output impedance of the line out but with a higher signal to noise ratio and a high 1.5 volt RMS I don't think driving them is going to be an issue (iems that is), the headphone out though has the amp behind it's back so it'll be easier for it to do so. The best thing to do is to try it and see. I know that you'll get a higher sound amplitude on the HO. I plugged my momentum on the LO and controlled the volume and the amp was not necessary. I don't like using the DX50 amp because it does not seem to sound as good as my pico amp.

You're right, plugging your IEM through the line out is as clear as sky. I hear a lot more details and wider separation at the expense on the bass. However, the bass seem a lot more detailed but not as powerful and lesser impact. I wonder if this is how the JH13 sound like. :)

Anyone know if there is a way to save our playlists when updating to a new firmware? The last time I updated I lost my playlists and had to redo it all over again and I really don't want to have to do it again.

The playlists are stored in the internal memory so will be lost when one does an update. Although I haven't tried it, you might try copying the folders that are contained in the root of the internal memory to a safe location on your computer, then re-copy them back to the internal memory after an update and see if your playlists show up.

You're right, plugging your IEM through the line out is as clear as sky. I hear a lot more details and wider separation at the expense on the bass. However, the bass seem a lot more detailed but not as powerful and lesser impact. I wonder if this is how the JH13 sound like.

Well move to 1.2.3 beta and your bass plus the output will be totally changed, I don't think you'll complain about a lack of more like too much of.

The playlists are stored in the internal memory so will be lost when one does an update. Although I haven't tried it, you might try copying the folders that are contained in the root of the internal memory to a safe location on your computer, then re-copy them back to the internal memory after an update and see if your playlists show up.

Sorry to say that but that's a recipe for lock ups and missing file references in the database unless you purposely track the playlist in the directory. To be honest it'll be a jumble list of file references. Good luck with that. The only case this will work is if you keep the same microSD card on the dap and the same file content as well.

After 3 days with the DX50... I'm still loving it!!
I spent many hours over the weekend testing it with a few headphones, it sounded best with the Audio Technica ATH-ESW10 and the Beyerdynamic DT250-80.
Other headphones I tested were the Alessandro MS-1 & MS-Pro, Denon AH-D2000, AKG K242HD & Senn HD-25-2.
The amp section is better than I expected but is limited in how much power it can deliver (no suprises there!), while the Dac delivers plenty of detail for a portable player and easily beats my Cowon J3 and HiSound Studio V3 players.
As to the iBasso DX50 build quality and reliablity?? It looks fantastic and appears to be built to a very high standard.
The firmware version is v1.2.2 and appears to work ok. The only issue I had was in using a 64GB microSDXC card formatted (by default) in exFAT. The DX50 would occasionally crash when changing between tracks. I own another 64GB microSDXC card formatted as FAT32 and this card worked perfectly without any glitches. Therefore I recommend re-formatting new cards to FAT32 until this problem is hopefully fixed in a future firmware release.
The highlight of the DX50 (for me) is its ability to play hi-res 24bit 88-192KHz FLAC music. It is definitely worth comparing a standard cd quality FLAC with the hi-res studio versions. Best places to find them are hdtracks.com and linnrecords.com
In summary... the iBasso DX50 is fantastic value for money. I would pay twice the price and still be happy with it!

The specs do not mention anything about the output impedance of the line out but with a higher signal to noise ratio and a high 1.5 volt RMS I don't think driving them is going to be an issue (iems that is), the headphone out though has the amp behind it's back so it'll be easier for it to do so. The best thing to do is to try it and see. I know that you'll get a higher sound amplitude on the HO. I plugged my momentum on the LO and controlled the volume and the amp was not necessary. I don't like using the DX50 amp because it does not seem to sound as good as my pico amp.

I will try it. I'm quite curious about it - sadly I lent DX50 for few days. Just after the great 1.2.3 sound improvement... Now I'm without DX50's for few hours and I'm already impatient as hell :D

Quote:

Originally Posted by headwhacker

You're right, plugging your IEM through the line out is as clear as sky. I hear a lot more details and wider separation at the expense on the bass. However, the bass seem a lot more detailed but not as powerful and lesser impact. I wonder if this is how the JH13 sound like. :)

Right, the LO signal is amazingly clear and clean. The hiss of amp section sometimes bothers me on IEMs, for example Etymotic HF3.

I wonder if this less powerfull bass isn't caused by lower dampig factor. I'll ask iBasso about that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CJG888

I would suggest the Tube Amp BL-2. In fact, I'm listening to DX50 / BL-2 / HD600 as I type this...

The midrange quality rivals many desktop rigs.

BL-2 is really great. I've checked it with DX50 and T90 and it was truly great - I love the clarity of all details, it's like enhanced by the BL-2.

I wonder if this less powerfull bass isn't caused by lower dampig factor. I'll ask iBasso about that.

You must have a very sensitive hearing than mine. Although I hear a very faint amount of hiss on my M8 with the JH16 on and I really need to focus on it to pick it up and does not really bother me. But nothing that I can detect on DX50.

Just a word of warning, I thought there is no free lunch and I was right. The sound change on the DX50 firmware is doing more than throwing some beautiful notes out there, the battery level is deeply impacted by the change. I left my house with a full battery charge and I have only played the dap for 4 hours, it's showing me I got only one quarter left so, this DAC setting including the increase LO volume is truly affecting the battery. Can anyone who has at least gotten the updated firmware more than say 6 hours of play is still showing at least half full? I hope I am wrong about this but I already plugged my dap.

Well I partly take it back but there is something very wrong with the battery indicator, I had to reboot the dap to have it show me the charging sign so that is truly imprecise as far as battery indication is concerned.Edited by musicheaven - 11/4/13 at 8:49am

the Dac delivers plenty of detail for a portable player and easily beats my Cowon J3 and HiSound Studio V3 players.

Glad to hear the DX50 beats the J3. I am still waiting on my DX50 from MP4nation.. starting to get a little impatient lol. I was actually pretty content with the J3 for what it was. Then I moved on to the Colorfly C3 and it was disappointing to my ears. Waiting to be blown away by the DX50!

Since my extremely chaotic hour of having a broken dx50 yesterday after the upgrade to 1.2.3 I have not had any additional issues. Though I'm going to not connect it to anything using the analog line out for the time being, as the reason I had issues anyway was when I was trying to turn the volume up to 255 for proper line out volume. Severely crashed when it got to around 235 - 240 volume and would no longer boot to the os.

Using the volume for minor adjustments with regular headphone use has thus far been fine. I haven't encountered any random freezing yet, that's rather nice but I need to give it more time before confirming if the issue has or has not been resolved.

Scrolling through the menus appears somewhat smoother.

Hard to say with any degree of certainly if and how the sound may have changed. If anything I believe I have noticed a slight decrease in the high end treble range, making it blend more smoothly with the other frequencies. I seem to get the same bass response. Sounds lovely, as always.

Random piece of information, I love testing out the sound performance with the song 'Mandelgroove' from the Blue Man Group ripped to flac. The dx50 makes this song pure ear candy. Drums all over the place. It's the song I choose by default if I let someone sound test my rig. :D